The good thing about reading screenplays is:
it doesn't take up longer than to watch the film to read one!
Just finished Leigh Brackett's original shooting script for El Dorado.

There is this anectode Robert Mitchum told about working with Howard Hawks
"Howard, didn't I shoot this guy yesterday?", he was confused about the upcoming scene. And the scriptgirl who was with Howard long enough told him she quit worrying about things like that long ago.

And that impression you get when you compare the script to the finished film. Almost no scene stayed intact! It's unbelievable how much re-writing must have went on right on the set (I don't have an earlier draft, the one I'm talking about is the one that actually went into production). Leigh Brackett left a lot of things open. For instance, she gives the Arthur Hunnicut character bow and arrow for the last shootout, and when that scene develops she asks (in the script!): (Does Bull have his gun or just bow and arrow?)

First of all, they changed the character's names:
First page in the script: name changes from previous yellow script: COLE THORNTON (WAS ARCH EASTMERE), J.P. HARRAH (WAS DAN HALLOCK) BART JASON (WAS MACK LACY), and, funny enough, they change NELSE MCLEOD TO DAN MCLEOAD - and obviously, they changed it back to Nelse when shooting. ¨

But in the process of re-writing, those earlier names sometimes still pop up. Haha! So when MAUDIE is talking to COLE she says: "Arch". The Joey-character is in the script first named SAM (SAMANTHA) then switches right to Joey.

I think the most significant change they made is in the character of guilt-ridden Cole Thornton. Not only does he shoot the MacDonald kid - he helps him commit suicide. This will come up several times afterwards. Here's the scene, nr. 14:

MACDONALD
We heard three shots.

COLE
The first and the last ones were his. You'll find two bullets in him. Mine was in his belly. You know how it is when a mans' gutshot... he knew too, because he said you told him they can live als long as three or four days and hurt worse all the time. Did you tell him that?

MACDONALD
Yes. I told him that.

COLE
Well, he was already hurting worse than he could stand. He asked me for his gun, and I gave it to him. Now do you have any more questions to ask me?

MACDONALD
No. I guess you're telling the truth. I guess if you weren't you wouldn't have brought him here. I'm obliged to you for that.

COLE
Just keep your kids at home.


I always felt they left something out in the discussion of the dying kid and Cole for when Cole brings home the body he tells this story about being gut-shot, and the kid died even before he could have told him that, and that he dozed off - that's because they cut down the dialog in that dying scene as well.

The scene in which Robert Mitchum sings (before Cole rides to Sonora) was never in the script, but actually shot, as stills are the proof, so Hawks made that one up, too.

What also was shot in this sequence but ended up on the cutting room floor is the scene in which JOEY comes to see THORNTON - there is a still of that scene in Kiesalt's "Reference Book". I guess Hawks had to hurry the plot along at that point, but still: I think that scene is quite good. Take a look, SHOT 19:

EXT. HARRAH'S HOUSE (DAY)
Joey MacDonald riding up to the house. She sits for a moment looking at the house as though making up her mind whether to go in... then jumps off the horse.

INT. HARRAH'S HOUSE
Joey enters. On a table beside Cole now a hat or a serape, something of the sort, is thrown.

JOEY
Hello, Mr. Thornton.

JOEY
(he doesnt' answer)
How... how are you?

COLE
You planning to finish the job this time if you get the wrong answer?
(she shakes her head)
You look like you mean it. All right.
(uncovers a gun on the table)

JOEY
I can't blame you for that. But I only came because I have to say something...

COLE
You don't have to say anything.

JOEY
Yes I do. It's not that easy for me, mister. I never shot a man before.

COLE
I never shot a kid before. (SIC - THE RECURRING THEME OF GUILT ALMOST ELIMINATED IN THE FINISHED FILM) And I don't find it easy.

JOEY
Then let me say what I came to say.

COLE
Look... you thought you had a reason to kill me, just like I thought I had a reason to kill your brother. We were both wrong but I was a better shot. Just be thankful you weren't.

JOEY
Maybe someday I can make it up to you...

COLE
I owe you and your family for the kid... so don't talk to me about debts. Now go on, get out of here.

JOEY
All right Mr Thornton. And I won't even say I'm sorry. Because that's the most useless word I know.
(goes)

COLE
(looks at gun)
It sure as hell is.

Here the scene dissolves to the final dinner before Cole's departure.

Well, there is more, fascinating stuff, and if you're a lover of Hawks' work, it's even more fascinating to find lines of dialogues or whole scenes as leftovers used in another picture - one went right on to RIO LOBO!

Thanks, Roland. This was really interesting! I especially like the scene you included at the end of your post between Joey and Cole. I could totally see it happening in my mind's eye.

I guess I would have liked it better if they had kept the name Arch Eastmere. Having another Duke character named Thornton just made me think too much of the quiet, peace-loving man with the same name and wonder if it was Hawks' intent to have us make this comparison.

I didn't think too hard about what Cole told MacDonald about his son. I noticed that we never heard the kid and Duke have a conversation about being gutshot, but I figured it was a conversation that happened off-screen... hmm. I guess they didn't want Cole to look too bad - instead they had him try to save the kid's life; he tries to move him and the kid won't let him.

At any rate, I'm sure glad they kept the scene where Duke knocks Joey flat on her butt! Ha! :lol:

Well, I don't know... Joey is the cutest cowgirl west of the Pecos! With the possible exception of that actress in "Tall in the Saddle", agh, what's her name. She was a nurse in that war-flic, Cry Havoc. Yep, Ella Raines (nobody'll ever know how long I sat here and stared at the screen until that name popped up).

BTW, about that scene, knocking Joey flat on her butt at the river. It's quite interesting that Hawks sets up all those scenes along a river:
the unfortunate MacDonald kid stands high up over the WATER, which Thornton has to cross to get to him;
Thornton crosses a bridge to get to Jason's place (and rides backwards afterwards), Thornton is shot by Joey by the river. And as he has that bullet in his back - a constant reminder of his guilt - he drops into an arroyo (those rivers had to be there, they were pointed out in the script as well). The whole fight is all about the WATER-RIGHTS Jason wants to take away from old man MacDonald.

Ah, water, river... I get it! I've only seen this one once... need to buy the DVD so I can appreciate it on a deeper level.

You like Joey, huh? Those tight designer jeans she wears are straight out of the old West, along with the big wildwoman hair. ;)

Yeah, I have to admit the girl in Tall in the Saddle was very pretty. I don't think she was much of an actress, though. She had two or three expressions: scowl, snarl, scowl, evil grin, scowl, evil grin, snarl... B)

But where can you find a girl that can ride, shoot AND throw a knife like that!

Well, maybe at some feminists' circle...

Originally posted by itdo@Oct 2 2003, 11:44 AM


Thornton crosses a bridge to get to Jason's place (and rides backwards afterwards),
4841


I'm resurrecting this reference to "El Dorado." -
I've always been taken with this scene where the Duke backs his horse out of Bart Jason's place. Not being a horseman (I know - being from Texas, how could I not be. There are a lot of urban areas here and have been for some time! I'm just a plain ol' city kid), I don't know whether that is a difficult manuever or not, but it was very effective on screen.

Cheers - Jay -_-

Since even I can do it, it's not. :D
But it certainly made for a great cinematic moment.